Philips SHE9000 review

Philips excels when it comes to mid-priced earphones and it has previously produced several award winners. The SHE9000s are remarkably small and light, despite their metal bodies, but they felt a little insecure in the ear canal even when we used the correct size of rubber ear tip. They aren’t designed to be hooked around the back of your ears, but nonetheless they sat comfortably during all but the most intense activity. If you want a closer fit and a greater sense of isolation from the outside world, the earphones come with a set of foam ear tips, and are compatible with Comply's T-400 size fittings.

With or without foam ear tips the earphones sounded fairly good, without any unnatural emphasis on either bass or treble tones. The mid-range in particular was warm and well-rounded and bass was similarly natural-sounding. Although they look like a pair of closed-driver earphones, each earpiece actually has a tiny bass port, intended to produce a bigger sound. Despite this, there wasn't much bass, nor was there the expansive sound stage we'd expect from open drivers.

Although they come with three sizes of silicon dome tips and one foam set, Philips doesn't supply a carry case of any sort. The 1.2m cable is fabric-wrapped for part of its length in an attempt to prevent tangling, while the individual sections leading to each ear are standard coated wire linked with a sliding grip that keeps them from becoming too badly knotted up in your pocket.

The SHE9000s aren’t a bad set of earphones – we liked their balanced sound and they’re a major improvement on anything you’ll find bundled with an MP3 player – but the Maxell Metallics are better value, with a lower price and greater clarity of sound. If you can afford the extra money, our current Best Buy, the Soundmagic E10 earphones, are an even better alternative.